Hey Mom,
Today we woke
up at 4:30 to watch the sunrise with a member, Joao Paulo (where we had Christmas).
It was cloudy and reminded me of trying to watch the sunset in Hawaii this last
year... But it was still really cool.
We hiked a little bit, took some touristy
pictures, also took a picture by a metal working statue thing you’ll see that
is officially the most Eastern point of the Americas, the closest you can get
to Africa!
We didn’t go on the beach, technically, so I don’t think we broke
any rules haha... But it was super pretty.
Work-wise,
this week was really tough. We have tons of investigators, all really
interested, all who want to be baptized - but they all have reasons why they can’t
be. It is so frustrating. Cicera STILL hasn’t
found another job and can’t leave work on Sundays, because she literally relies
on her job right now to support her family. We have 3 men that all want to be
baptized, but none of them are married and are currently living with their girlfriends.
This is a HUGE problem here, NO ONE gets married. I guess it’s expensive and
takes a lot of time. They just don’t see
the point. We also found out that Maria
was already baptized (I don’t remember if I talked about her last week but she
is super needy - sick, in a lot of pain, no money, so we have been helping her
with these things and visit regularly but really this is where the Relief
Society should be and they aren’t doing anything. So we have been doing a LOT of work with
people, but have no “results”. (If you measure “results” by number of baptisms.)
Our leaders are
hounding us to baptize people. This Sunday Elder K and I were the only people
in our zone to not baptize, and our Zone Leaders made sure we knew it when they
spoke to us. After this call Elder K got really worked up. This was Sunday afternoon, but we continued
working. About 6:30 walking to a
compromisso guess who we saw: (keep in mind this is Sunday evening) Our Zone
Leaders in street clothes walking to their house, joking around; they had just
bought food, etc. This is our mission. Elder K just about blew his top. Our
leaders baptize people just throwing them in the water, they have tons of baptisms
and get a lot of credit for working hard, then get mad at me and Elder K when
we are really trying hard to obey the rules and baptize true converts. It is SO
frustrating, and this is a problem through the entire mission. This has been
really disheartening to see, and I hope I can help it change.
Que acontecue
esta semana: (What happened this week)
We had a LOT
of rain! Walking to lunch it was just sprinkling. Elder K wanted to bring an umbrella, but I being
a Washingtonian thought it was fine. Halfway there it DUMPED and we arrived
COMPLETELY soaked through. But honestly it was really fun, I find joy in the
rain here. It is a lot easier to fall asleep to the sound of rain. We also had
a thunder storm which was cool.
Walking home
one night I found the BIGGEST SNAIL I HAVE EVER SEEN. I brought him home to
take pictures. We named him Frederick. He
is seriously the size of my hand. Super cool!
We finally
had a pancake night with some members, I sent pictures. (When everyone hears Carson has a bottle of maple extract to
make maple syrup, everyone wants to have pancakes with him. We heard they didn’t
have that or Peanut Butter in Brazil, so I sent him with both along with other
necessities I thought he may have trouble getting. Some are paying off, some not so much.)
I look like a giant with a lot of
the members here because everyone is so small - but I haven’t grown (yet)
upwards.
I HAVE gained about 15 pounds if my math is right... I look in the
mirror and I am not fat yet but definitely not cut like I was. I get sad. I do
exercises every morning but I need to be better about my diet. I just find so
much joy in the food here, haha. Also I think my legs are getting bigger/bulkier
from all the walking so maybe that’s a little bit of it too.
Today marks 5
months since I have been out, woohoo!
Also, my
miracle of not stepping in dog poop is no more. I arrived home to find a big
fat dog crap stuck to the bottom of my shoe last night. I was very worked
up.
Elder K also
loves peanut butter - but they don’t have it here. I cracked open my peanut
butter and after seeing the look in his eyes, I gave it to him. A little late Christmas
Present! I know he’s gonna enjoy it more than me.
I didn’t
exactly study faith this week... but I had the intention to, just got
sidetracked. I read in Alma 32 when he talks about a seed growing into a tree. And
maybe I am stupid for not knowing this, but I think the primary song “Faith Is
Like A Little Seed” mislead me... BUT, in Alma 32, the seed, is NOT faith! It’s
actually referring to the word of God. It still talks about faith in this
chapter, but the majority of Alma’s words are about the word of God being
planted in our heart and how it can grow into the tree of life and produce
fruit. I got pretty lost studying this chapter
because I was trying to think of so much, I still have a lot here to study. There
is a ton of symbolism and I am just making random connections right now. But
one cool thing is this, how Alma’s discourse is similar to Lehi’s vision of the
tree of life. The bar of iron and the seed = word of God. The bar of iron leads to the tree of life,
the seed grows into the tree of life. Both result in the obtaining of fruit,
the love of god - or the knowledge of his plan and the atonement of Jesus
Christ. That’s just one thing in my mind, but seriously, my Book of Mormon his
completely covered with annotations and little thoughts about this chapter, I’m
trying to figure out the symbolism of all the different things and what it
means to me, its nuts!
This was my
week. We have 2 weeks left in this
transfer, I really hope Elder K and I can baptize again before transfers. I’m
gonna miss this area, I love the ward and my companion.
Love you! Elder Sork
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